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Friday, June 02, 2006

Da Veni Da Vidi Da Vinci

I'm hosting a 2 week Da Vinci Discussion at Borders on Fridays, June 9 & 16 from 9 to 10 a.m. BYO book and let's have some fun deciphering the code and controversy (for Kansas readers, email me at lyngperry at yahoo.com for the location). Here's a bit of what you can expect (quoting Mike Adams at Townhall.com) ...

Q: Oh, I just love that book. Have you read about the Council of Nicea and how they conspired to keep out the Gnostic Gospels? It was all so political the way they choose the Books of the Bible, don't you agree?

A: No.

Q: Well, why not?

A: I've read the Bible seven times, the New Testament ten times, and all of the so-called Gnostic Gospels.

Q: And what have you concluded?

A: The New Testament books were selected long before 325 A.D. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were either written by eyewitnesses or on the basis of eyewitness evidence. The Gnostic Gospels were not. In addition to being incoherent fragments, they were written many, many decades later.

I just try to treat the life of Jesus as a murder mystery, which is easy to do since he was, in fact, murdered. If you want to solve the mystery, you have to know everything you can about the victim. To do so, you should prefer eyewitness testimony over all other forms of evidence. There was no better type of evidence back then. And, of course, only a fool would give preference to the accounts that were written later. That is a backwards way of thinking. I mean that literally.

Q: Then why does The Da Vinci Code suggest that members of the Council of Nicea conspired to exclude certain books for sexist reasons, if it isn't true?

A: Because The Da Vinci Code is fiction.

Q: How do you know?

A: Because I picked it up at Barnes and Noble in the section marked "fiction."

Welcome!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm Lyn Perry and I write and reflect on the interplay of faith and fiction. I'm a pastor, coffee drinker, and herder of cats. I also run Tule Fog Press, an indie publisher of a variety of genres. For monthly perks and prizes, please subscribe to our mailing list. I'll send you a free book right away for your trouble! Also, drop me a line at lyngperry @ yahoo.com. I look forward to hearing from you!